Today's Providence Journal reported that the federal investigation into former House Speaker - and now felon - Gordon Fox, was an offshoot from the agency's review of questionable practices at the Providence Economic Development Partnership. The Hummel Report has done a series of stories on the PEDP, beginning in the fall of 2011 that included Jim Hummel's confrontation of Fox on the House Floor nearly two years ago about his legal work there and failure to disclose income to the Ethics Commission. In light of this week's fast-moving developments we are providing a chronology of our work that outlines why federal agents launched their own investigation into the troubled agency, which ultimately took them to Gordon Fox.

The following are Hummel investigations involving Gordon Fox and the Providence Economic Development Partnership.

9.27.2012 Phantom Address

It is a taxpayer-funded loan program run by the city of Providence - designed to help Providence businesses that can't get traditional financing. So how did a company with no Providence connection score a loan? And what role did one of the state's most prominent politicians play in the deal? Jim Hummel has the answers.

5.2.2013 A Question of Disclosure

He is the most powerful politician in Rhode Island. But it's House Speaker Gordon Fox's work as a private attorney for a troubled Providence agency that has caught the attention of federal overseers. Our months-long investigation has turned up potential conflicts of interest and questions about disclosure of income on his ethics form.

9.26.2013 Ethics Complaint Update

The PEDP was also involved with our earlier reports from 2011 involving then Mayor now U.S. Representative David Cicilline.

11.17.2011 Risky Business

This week: The results of a six-month Hummel Report investigation into a taxpayer-funded business loan program run by the city of Providence. The program had a default rate so high under the Cicilline administration that federal officials overseeing the lending initiative have stepped in, wanting to know why. Jim Hummel discovers loans going to the politically-connected and some who never should have gotten the money to begin with.

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7.19.2012 Mopping Up

The board overseeing a taxpayer-funded loan program for Providence businesses has written off millions of dollars in bad loans - two-thirds made during the administration of former Mayor David Cicilline. Jim Hummel has obtained new documents showing Cicilline tried to bend the rules of a program that the feds later said took on too much risk. And we have details about the longest-running loan, which is being carried by a prominent elected official.